A tree to about 7 m high of the savanna, known only from Mali, Guinea and Sierra Leone at 900–1,000 m elevation.The fruit of most Parinari (sens. lat.) species has a tawny layer of a soft cottony substance lining the inside of the endocarp which is used over tropical Africa as a fire-tinder, cf. Neocarya macrophylla (Sab.) Prance. In B. benna this layer has a harsher texture. The hairs are perfectly straight, apparently hollow, needle-shaped spines which project stiffly into the loculus cavity. These are used in Guinea as a vermifuge corresponding in a way to the mechanical irritation caused by the hairs of, for example, Mucuna pruriens (Leguminosae: Papilionioideae) (1). A record of the fruit used in northern Sierra Leone as a vermifuge (2) is evidently of this also.